Why is something 1/6 and something else 1/25? Why is something that was last week 1/5 is 1/15 this week? I’ve seen these “odds” change in the newspapers for horse racing, football, and other sports. I have never understood this. I watched some YouTube videos to try to make heads or tails from it but it’s left me in the same.
In: Mathematics
Sportsbooks have “odds makers” who basically use historical data to inform how likely they believe an event is to happen
Let’s take the Super Bowl today
Travis Kelce might have like 1:1 odds of getting a Touchdown, because the Odds Makers know that he scores about every other game, so it’s about a 50/50 shot
Conversely, someone like Kyle Juszczyk might have 5:1 odds of getting a Touchdown because he doesn’t get them nearly as often.
Lines can also move based off sentiment. The Odds Makers might set San Fransisco as the favourite, but if that causes people to bet overwhelmingly on Kansas City, then they’ll move the odds in KC’s favour to try to balance it out.
They could also move the lines based on news, if news came out that Patrick Mahomes is feeling sick, the odds might move more in favour of SF
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